Fungus
Part of things
Posts: 960
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May 21, 2014 17:26:42 GMT
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Right, i know it sounds dodgy but hear me out...
I want to upgrade to vented discs on my mk2 polo. The stock discs are 12mm thick, and the new ones are 20mm.
Usually, people swap to VWII Calipers as they are wider to make room for the thicker disc. Surely i could machine 4mm off each brake pad (8mm difference in disc thickness) and use my standard calipers? They're in great shape and have recently been refurb'd.
The only difference between the VWII calipers and my current ones is the width. I could buy a new set of pads and they'd be about 12mm thick, so even after machining off 4mm there would still be 8mm of material. There's got to be hundreds of cars out there with partly-worn pads that are currently running on less than 8mm thickness (MOT minimum is 1mm i believe).
Any thoughts?
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May 21, 2014 17:47:54 GMT
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my thoughts are that the disc wont fit in the caliper.
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Fungus
Part of things
Posts: 960
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May 21, 2014 17:52:06 GMT
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Why is that?
There's only and 8mm thickness differences and the stock pads have about 15mm of meat on them. They are the same diameter discs too.
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grumpy
Part of things
Posts: 557
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May 21, 2014 18:22:37 GMT
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Really doesnt sound like a good idea , taking short cuts when it comes to safety . Could you be sure if you did manage to machine the pad surface down that it hadnt causes a crack or similar in the material ?
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120y
Part of things
Posts: 423
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May 21, 2014 18:37:53 GMT
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What about the dust created too, I guess youd be wearing a mask but even so, just look at the residue left on wheels.
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1996 Renault Clio MK1 1.4 RT Auto
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ferny
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 985
Club RR Member Number: 13
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Machining Brake pads?ferny
@ferny
Club Retro Rides Member 13
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May 21, 2014 18:41:09 GMT
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It'd work. But it makes about as much sense as using a shopping bag made out of rice paper just because it's cheaper than a rucksack.
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May 21, 2014 19:08:58 GMT
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Hi, Welshpug is right there is not space for the thicker discs. If you remove your pads and look you will see that part of the caliper is close to the disc, this is the bit that locates and supports the backing plate of the pads. So that when some one lets the pads wear down to the backing plate they don't disappear through the gap.
Colin
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Don't mess with brakes
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Rich
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 6,268
Club RR Member Number: 160
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Machining Brake pads?Rich
@foxmcintyre
Club Retro Rides Member 160
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Don't mess with brakes I do all the time. I take them off and put them back on. New pads, hoses, All sorts.. Anyway. Shaving pads is nothing new (and why would it be dangerous done properly- ask yourselves, what is happening to a brake pad over it's working lifetime?) but it won't work as pointed out, the disk won't fit. Either find the right callipers. A good option to pep up brakes easily as I found with my mk2 golf with the same brakes was to fit ATE power groove (solid mind!) discs, good branded pads and braided brake lines and that made so much of a difference it wasn't worth seeking the parts to convert to bigger vented discs.
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Don't mess with brakes I do all the time. I take them off and put them back on. New pads, hoses, All sorts.. Anyway. Shaving pads is nothing new (and why would it be dangerous done properly- ask yourselves, what is happening to a brake pad over it's working lifetime?) but it won't work as pointed out, the disk won't fit. Either find the right callipers. A good option to pep up brakes easily as I found with my mk2 golf with the same brakes was to fit ATE power groove (solid mind!) discs, good branded pads and braided brake lines and that made so much of a difference it wasn't worth seeking the parts to convert to bigger vented discs. I agree. Putting new discs and decent pads on my MKII Polo improved the braking quite significantly. Paul H
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g40jon
Posted a lot
Posts: 2,569
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I don't see any reason you couldn't shave the pads and fit the vented discs. The carriers are compatible, so as you say, reducing the amount of material on the pads would allow them to fit in theory. The arguement about the disc not fitting is an interesting one. The discs are the same 239mm dia. so there is no issue there, so the only possible issue is if the width of the disc somehow contacts the caliper. This would be easy to check by trial fitting the disc and caliper combo. Having said that, given how common and cheap vw2 calipers are, i'd just run them with vw1 carriers.
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do you really want the hassle of shaving pads every time you need to change your pads .. also if ever selling your car i think you'd scare off any buyer if you mention shaved pads ..
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I have some VW2 calipers you can buy from me? Not trying to hard sell or clutter up the thread haha. I paid £25 for them and would sell them for the same.. gotta be easier than machining the pads?
Cheers
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Another aspect not yet mentioned is how would the pads be machined ? Milled, ground, etc
Paul H
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grumpy
Part of things
Posts: 557
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May 22, 2014 10:21:56 GMT
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Another aspect not yet mentioned is how would the pads be machined ? Milled, ground, etc Paul H That was my concern . Grinding it would take ages and i thought milling would crack it or pull chips out of it . Plus if you can get cheap callipers why bother taking the dodgy route ?
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grumpy
Part of things
Posts: 557
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May 22, 2014 10:22:10 GMT
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double post
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Last Edit: May 22, 2014 10:22:46 GMT by grumpy
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May 22, 2014 11:52:31 GMT
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I've thinned brake disks down by a mm before by rubbing them on coarse abrasive paper (but be weary of the dust). you should be able to use VW1 calipers on vented disks (Ive used VWII calipers with solid disks and pads for solid disks in the past,as I didnt have a spare sent of new vented disks). but under normal circumstances I'd be using vented disks with VWII calipers. in this picture, the VWII calipers are on each side (with different carriers) and a VWI caliper is in the middle
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May 22, 2014 12:17:01 GMT
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On a mk1 golf with ww2 calipers you can get 2 different thickness of pads for them off the shelf. One set for non vented and one set for vented.
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muttley racing ftmfwmf
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May 22, 2014 16:54:20 GMT
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Don't mess with brakes I do all the time. I take them off and put them back on. New pads, hoses, All sorts.. Anyway. Shaving pads is nothing new (and why would it be dangerous done properly- ask yourselves, what is happening to a brake pad over it's working lifetime?) but it won't work as pointed out, the disk won't fit. Either find the right callipers. A good option to pep up brakes easily as I found with my mk2 golf with the same brakes was to fit ATE power groove (solid mind!) discs, good branded pads and braided brake lines and that made so much of a difference it wasn't worth seeking the parts to convert to bigger vented discs. Sorry, what I should have said was don't mess with if you are not 100% confident in what you are doing... obviously a simple disc/caliper/pad change okay but you need to be confident in your abilities to start skimming pads etc
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g40jon
Posted a lot
Posts: 2,569
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May 22, 2014 17:25:07 GMT
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Skimming pads is hardly rocket science, pad + flat abrasive surface + rubbing = skimmed pad. Just keep in consideration that brake dust is really nasty stuff, so you need a good filtration mask and pref. some gloves to minimise skin contact.
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